Public Invited to Free Screening of the Film "Cielo"

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Astronomical Society (AAS) invites the public to a screening of Cielo, a cinematic reverie on the beauty of the night sky as experienced in Chile's Atacama Desert, on Tuesday evening, June 11th, from 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm CDT. This FREE event is being held in Grand Ballroom DEF at the historic St. Louis Union Station Hotel (1820 Market St., St. Louis, MO 63103) in connection with the 234th AAS meeting, which runs from June 9th through the 13th and is attracting more than 600 scientists, students, and journalists from all over the world.

Director Alison McAlpine's sublime nonfiction film drifts between science and spirituality, the arid land, desert shores, and lush galaxies, expanding the limits of our earthling imaginations. Planet hunters in the Atacama's astronomical observatories and desert dwellers who work the land and sea share their evocative visions of the stars and planets, their mythic stories, and their existential queries with remarkable openness and a contagious sense of wonder. A love poem for the night sky, Cielo transports us to a space, quiet and calm, within which we can ponder the infinite and unknown.

"So few of us look above and pay attention to the stars or planets in our daily lives," says McAlpine. "Cielo is an invitation to slow down, reflect, and rediscover our world, offering, I hope, the audience an evocative space in which to think and imagine for themselves — perhaps even to experience a moment of transcendence."

Parking is available at standard rates in the west lot off 20th St. behind Maggie O'Brien's. That lot is directly across the street from the hotel's Midway doors, through which you should enter. If you don't have a guest-room key, press the doorbell to be let in by security personnel. Once inside, turn right toward the ballrooms. The movie will be shown in Grand Ballroom DEF. Seating is first come, first serve.

The AAS offers complimentary press registration to qualified local media representatives who wish to cover the 234th AAS meeting: https://aas.org/meetings/aas234/press-information

The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899 and headquartered in Washington, DC, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity's scientific understanding of the universe, which it achieves through publishing, meeting organization, education and outreach, and training and professional development.

SOURCE American Astronomical Society